What watch do you wear with your flying jacket?

[watchmanjimg]

Update: I synchronized my circa 2003 DW-5600E to the official US time (time.gov) right after we had this discussion and it's already 5 seconds fast. :?

I'm certainly not claiming that a G Shock is the ultimate in precision timekeeping -- they're quartz mass-produced watches, so naturally there will be some variation example-to-example.

But, to be fair, at one point my Omega X-33 was gaining time about 1/2 second per day. Not a big deal, since I don't use my watch to navigate or determine weapon release times when flying.

The fact is, a watch that gains/loses a second per day really isn't even of significance for 99% of the watch-wearing population. None of us have tasks which require to-the-second accuracy day after day, which we solely rely upon our wristwatch to accomplish, without the ability to phone up the US Naval Observatory and grab a time hack whenever we need to. Those of us that fly airplanes and need time precision no longer have to use our watches to do so -- billions of dollars in GPS Constellation take care of that for us. If the Chinese shoot down the GPS constellation and we still need that to-the-half-second accuracy in our bombs hitting targets, the million-dollar ring-laser-gyro intertial navigation systems that back up the GPS systems in strike aircraft do it better than anything I'm likely to buy from a watchmaker and strap on my wrist.

It's great to love watches for their style factor, or because you like the intricacies of their engineering or manufacture -- I'm all for that. I own several very expensive and I'm sure super-accurate timepieces, and I love to wear them.

But the idea that you need your watches to be COSC-certified timepieces, or that such accuracy means anything to us besides something for us to obsess over in our living rooms, is laughable. I'm not under any impression that when I wear my Breitling that I'm any more precise than when I wear my G-Shock -- I'm just a lot less apt to be angry at the end of the flight when I find out that I've banged the Casio up against the side of the cockpit instead of putting a huge scratch on the Breitling!

All valid points, and I totally agree that none of us "needs" a super-accurate watch although the enthusiasts among us certainly like having them. I just find that for whatever odd reason my G-Shocks are especially poor timekeepers when compared against my other digital watches. For example, my Suunto Core was synchronized to the official US time right after the DW-5600E and it's still spot-on. Nothing to obsess over in any case, but it's ironic that some of the more accurate mechanical watches I've owned can do better than an electronic timepiece.

 

[duwan34]

Only vintages

Longines Majetek, 1936

Auricoste type 20, 1954

Waltham 24h, 1944

Dodane type 21

Cyma, 1945

Waltham and Hamilton, 1944

Hamilton 1973